Gifts for Bakers: Bread, Cake and Pastry Tools

Weighing flour instead of scooping it is the change that improves home baking most, and the Escali Primo is the scale most often recommended for it. It holds up to 11 pounds, or 5,000 grams, and reads in 1 gram steps in grams, ounces or pounds and ounces.

It runs on two buttons, on and tare, and the display and controls sit under a sealed shield, so flour and spills wipe off rather than getting inside. It turns off after four minutes idle, and Escali backs it with a lifetime warranty.

Skip it for a baker who already weighs everything; they own a scale. For a bread baker who needs to measure small amounts of salt and yeast, a second scale reading in 0.1 grams is the upgrade.

The catch. One gram is too coarse for weighing a few grams of yeast or salt with real precision.

Layer cakes need two pans the same size, and cheap dark nonstick pans brown the edges before the middle is set. Nordic Ware's Naturals pans are bare aluminum, which conducts heat evenly and gives pale, level layers. The rims are encapsulated so the pans do not warp.

Each pan is 9 inches across inside and about 2.5 inches deep, deep enough for a tall layer without spilling over. Nordic Ware makes them in the USA. Line them with a circle of parchment and a baker will turn out layers for years.

Bare aluminum should be washed by hand; the dishwasher dulls and discolors it. Skip these for someone who only makes sheet cakes and brownies.

The catch. Hand wash only if you want them to keep their finish, and there is no nonstick coating, so line the base.

J.K. Adams has turned wood in Vermont since 1944, and its Medium Gourmet pin is a classic handled rolling pin: a 12 inch maple barrel, 2 3/4 inches across, on a full-length steel axle with self-lubricating bearings. The barrel is waxed and the wood is North American maple.

A heavier handled pin does more of the work on firm pie dough and cookie dough than a thin French pin, which some bakers find easier for pastry. The 12 inch barrel handles a pie crust or a sheet of cookies without being awkward to store.

It must be hand washed and never soaked. Skip it for a baker who already rolls with a French pin and loves it; bakers rarely switch.

The catch. Handled pins are a matter of taste, and bakers who prefer a tapered French pin will not use it.

Bread bakes best in a closed pot for the first part of the bake, which traps steam and lets the loaf rise before the crust sets. The Combo Cooker is a 3.2 quart deep pot and a 10.25 inch skillet that fits over it as a lid. Bakers turn it upside down, dropping the dough into the shallow skillet and covering it with the pot, so there is no lowering a hot loaf into a deep pan.

It is Lodge's plain seasoned cast iron, made at the company's foundry in Tennessee, and it is as useful for a Tuesday stew or a steak as for bread. Lodge seasons it with vegetable oil, with no synthetic coating.

At about $60 it is the best-value serious bread tool there is. Skip it for someone who bakes large loaves; the 3.2 quart pot suits an everyday round loaf, and a big batard is a tight fit.

The catch. Heavy, and the round shape suits boules rather than long loaves.

The Challenger was designed by bakers for the one job. Its base is shallow, so dough goes in without reaching into a hot pot, and its tall lid sits over the loaf to hold steam. It measures 15.5 by 10.5 inches, big enough for a long batard or two small loaves, and it is rated to 500 degrees.

It comes pre-seasoned with grapeseed oil. The maker suggests inverting the lid into the base partway through the bake to protect the bottom of the loaf. The handles are shaped for thick oven mitts, which matters with 20 pounds of hot iron.

This is a gift for someone who already bakes bread every week and knows why they want it. Skip it for a beginner, and check that the pan fits their oven; it is large.

The catch. Heavy, expensive and single-purpose; it earns its price only for a weekly bread baker.